Why — And How — To Watch Women’s Surfing in the Olympics — Part 6 — Maneuvers and Scoring

Judges are interested in pushing surfers to the edge of their ability, so they want to see the surfer take most powerful, difficult wave. Pro surfers want those too. The waves that most of us would whimper and run from are exactly the waves that get the pros frothing. So the first part of the score is what the wave will actually ALLOW the surfer to do. The bigger the wave, the bigger the score, if they are able to “convert” that wave — to do some bigass maneuvers that are humanly impossible. Other factors include how the wave peels, how long it holds up, and how steep the wall (or face) is, especially in the first two turns.

Sheila GallienJuly 17, 2021tokyo 2020, tokyo 2021, women's olympics, women's surfing olympics, olympic debut surfing, scoring olympic surfing, women's surfing, women surf olympics, women rippers, women olympics, empowering women, empowering women athletes, women supporting womenComment

Why — And How — To Watch Women’s Surfing in the Olympics — Part 5 — The Surfer

What you don’t see with the surfer:

Reflexes — insane. Thousands of pounds of wind and water are steamrolling, shifting, changing, morphing, in an ever-changing environment, and the surfer is adapting instantaneously through every second of the ride.

Decision-making — nuts. With all the variables described so far in this article, the surfer brings their thousands of hours of water experience, training, and talent to every moment of every wave. There is never a second that it relents. Decisions are made from the moment they see the wave on the horizon, until they have completed, or not completed, the ride.

Consequences — unparalleled. If you miss a ball in basketball, you disappoint your team. If you fall in gymnastics, snowboarding, pairs ice skating, you can be badly injured by the cold hard ground, but you still can at least assess your environment. If you misjudge a 10-foot wave, you could be drilled by the lip into a jagged reef, held down by the wave, cut, concussed, or drowned.

Sheila GallienJuly 17, 2021tokyo 2020, women's surfing, women's olympics, pro women surfers, world surf league, women surf olympics, debut surfing olympics, empowering women athletes, women supporting women, soul surfing, cheer for women, women rippers, empowering women, women olympics, tokyo 2021, olympics 2021Comment